A senior law man and elder at Ernabella, a small bush community in the north eastern part of South Australia, Dickie Minyintiri has won the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art award. The Telstra Art Award is now in its 28th year and is the longest-running art award dedicated to the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. It has come to be regarded as one of the premier national events in the Australian Indigenous art community. The 28th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award judges were artist and academic, Dr Danie Mellor, a South Australian curator and artist, Nici Cumpston and Judith Ryan, senior Indigenous curator at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Now aged 96, Dickie Minyintiria, a Pitjantjatjara man was selected from 60 works that had been short listed from 300 entries. “Kanyalakutjina” (Euro tracks) is synthetic polymer paint on canvas and uses Dickie’s personal expressive style. A euro is a small kangaroo. The judges said his paitning, a multi-layered canvas that follows the contours of the land around Ernabella, “radiates enery and spirituality”. It is an extraordinary painting in which Dickie reflects on more than 90 years of his nomadic existence, walking his desert country, tracing the tracks of animals to the central and important kapi tjukula (waterholes) to drink; and where Wati (men) also went for inma (ceremonies). Born in Pilpirinyi in Western Australia, Dickie Minyintiri is one of the most senior Pitjantjatjara men alive today. He is endeared and revered by the whole community as one of the most significant and important artists from the region, a highly respected Ngangkari (traditional healer), and senior Law Man. Dickie’s family were the first people at Ernabella before the mission days, and his powerful recollections of his family’s history are reflected through his work that tells the story of his life before settlement, his role in ceremonies and how he is the custodian of cultural knowledge.
The Telstra General Painting Award was awarded to Bobby West Tjupurrula from Kiwirrkura in Western Australia for his untitled work that depicts designs associated with the significant rockhole site of Tarkul, north of Mt Webb in Western Australia. This is the site where large groups of Tingari men came in ancestral times to be burnt in a large fire.
The Telstra Works on Paper was awarded to Dennis Nona from Torres Strait for his work Zuga Zug. Dennis, a Queenslander, is a much acclaimed artist. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most important Torres Strait Islander artists. He has won the Telstra Works on Paper category for the second year running and was awarded the overall Telstra Art Award in 2007. His winning work on paper, Zuga Zug reflects an important story from Dennis’ homeland, etched in his unique style.
Congratulations to Tangentyere Artist, Margaret Boko from Alice Springs, a finalist in the Award. She is a well respected artist painting inspirational works of life in the desert. She features regularly in exhibitions throughout the country. Tangentyere is the Art Centre where the artists from the town Camps in Alice Springs go to paint.
The 28th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award exhibition will be on display at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory until Sunday, 30 October 2. For those of us who were not able to be in Darwin for this prestigious award, the artworks in this year’s exhibition are featured on an interactive website which offers users from around the world the opportunity to view moving images of this year’s artworks and listen to recordings of the story behind the works through a virtual online gallery from 6pm Thursday, 11 August 2011. Emu Apple Gallery brings news of major art awards and art from the remote communities to a city audience.
Source: Independent Newspapers.
